看電影學英語Seven《七宗罪》精講之6

影片對白

Mills: I've been trying to figure something in my head. Maybe you can help me out, yeah? When a person is insane, as you clearly are, do you know that you're insane? Maybe you're just sitting around, reading "Guns & Ammo...", masturbating in your own feces, do you just stop and go "Wow, it is amazing how fucking crazy I really am"? Yeah? Do you guys do that?

John: It's more comfortable for you to label me insane.

Mills: It's very comfortable.

John: It's not something I would expect you to accept but I did not choose. I was chosen.

Somerset: Whatever. I don't doubt that you believe that but seems to me you're overlooking a glaring contradiction.

John: Meaning what?

Somerset: Glad you asked. If you were chosen, that is, by a higher power, and if your hand was forced, seems strange to me you would get such enjoyment out of it. You enjoyed torturing those people. Just doesn't seem in keeping with martyrdom, does it?

Mills: John.

John: I doubt I enjoyed it any more than Detective Mills would enjoy time alone with me in a room without windows. Isn't that true? How happy would it make you to hurt me with impunity?

Mills: That hurts my feelings. I would never-

John: You wouldn't only because there's consequences. It's in those eyes of yours, though. Nothing wrong with a man taking pleasure in his work. I won't deny my own personal desire to turn each sin against the sinner.

Mills: Wait a minute. I thought all you did was killin’ innocent people.

John: Innocent? Is that supposed to be funny? An obese man, a disgusting man who could barely stand up, a man if you saw him on the street, you'd point out to your friends so they could join you in mocking him. A man if you saw him while you were eating you wouldn't be able to finish your meal. And after him, I picked the lawyer and you both must have secretly been thanking me for that one. This is a man who dedicated his life to making money by lying with every breath that he could muster to keeping murderers and rapists on the streets!

Mills: Murderers.

John: A woman!

Mills: Murderers, John, like yourself.

John: A woman so ugly on the inside that she couldn't barely go on living if she couldn't be beautiful on the outside. A drug dealer, a drug-dealing pederast, actually. And let's not forget the disease-spreading whore. Only in a world this shitty could you even try to say these were innocent people and keep a straight face. But that's the point. We see a deadly sin on every street corner in every home and we tolerate it. We tolerate it because it's common, it's... it's trivial. We tolerate it morning, noon, and night. Well, not anymore. I'm setting the example and what I've done is going to be puzzled over and studied and followed forever.

Mills: Yep. Delusions of grandeur.

妙語佳句:

1. dedicate to

這個短語大家應該都不陌生，就是“獻身于，致力于”的意思，比如：He dedicated his life to the service of his country. 他將畢生獻給了祖國。

需要注意的是，當用dedicate to時，dedicate 是作動詞的，to 的后面要接名詞，名詞性短語和動名詞。

2. on the street

這里的意思可不是“流落在外，無家可歸”，而是“out of prison or police custody; at liberty在監(jiān)獄外，不進監(jiān)獄”，比如：Thanks to the lawyer, he finally was on the street. 多虧了律師，他最終沒進監(jiān)獄。

3. keep a straight face

這個片語的意思是“面無表情don't show one's feelings, especially refrain from laughing”，比如：The school orchestra played so many wrong notes that I had trouble keeping a straight face. 學校樂隊的表演演奏錯了那么多音符，我無法保持面無表情的狀態(tài)。

4. Delusions of grandeur

A delusion in which one believes oneself possessed of great importance, power, wealth, intellect, or ability. 可以解釋為“幻想自大癥”，“自以為了不起” 等等。比如：He has delusions of grandeur. 他自以為很了不起。

影片點評：

電影的名字是Seven，“七”在基督教中是個神秘的數(shù)字：上帝用7天創(chuàng)造世界，用亞當?shù)牡?根肋骨造了夏娃。撒旦的原身是有7個頭的火龍，世界共有7名墮落天使被稱為撒旦。16世紀后，天主教更直接用撒旦的7個惡魔的形象來代表7種罪惡，即本片中的七宗罪——1. Pride 2. Envy 3. Wrath 4. Sloth 5. Greed 6. Gluttony 7. Lust。與之相對應的七種美德是——1. Humility 2. Contentment 3. Patience 4. Fortitude 5. Mercy 6. Moderation 7. Chastity。

在電影里，故事的時間設定為七天，7罪、7罰、7次下雨，甚至結(jié)局也由罪犯定在第7天的下午7時（佩服一下罪犯的高智商高能力，連氣象都預測的這么準確），看起來一切都像是宿命的罪與罰。分開來看七宗罪的罪行，每一宗并不構(gòu)成死罪（上帝只告訴我們，犯下這七宗罪者，必下地獄，強調(diào)的是死后而非現(xiàn)世的懲罰）。所以電影中由殺手施行的7罰，仔細分析看來也是很遵守規(guī)則的：他并不直接動手殺人。胖子被迫進食過多撐破血管而死；律師割下自己的肉——只是1磅，不多也不少；毒販在被發(fā)現(xiàn)時一息尚存；妓女是被嫖客所殺；模特只被割下鼻子，因為她太過驕傲，不肯打電話報警，所以流血過多而死。兇手自稱犯下“嫉妒”的罪行，但嫉妒本身是不構(gòu)成罪行的，只是當他因此殺害了無辜者Tracy，才成為Mills狂怒的報復對象。

照這樣的思路，罪犯完全是照“主”的指引在匡正人世，他自己的話也是這么說的“I’m setting an example…”，但是，且住，《圣經(jīng)•舊約•十誡》中說：“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.不可妄稱耶和華——你上帝的名。”就是說，圣主只有一個，凡人不能假借他的名字傳道。只要抓準了這一條，兇手的立場就完全不成立，宿命一說也就煙消云散。Somerset其實已經(jīng)找到了這個漏洞。在第7天（放晴的星期日），3個人在警車上時，Somerset問John是否認為自己在替上帝做事，而他無法正面回答，只說“上帝的行事是玄妙的”。這一點足以說明一切不過是他這個憤世嫉俗者自大狂妄到了極點，自認為可以代替主來傳道——在他認為存在的宗教世界里。這和希特勒認為日耳曼民族是最優(yōu)秀的民族、只有自己才能帶領(lǐng)人類創(chuàng)建美好世界，以及日本軍國主義認為只有自己才能拯救亞洲有什么不同呢？

話說回來，天國、地獄都是人類的想象，宗教不過是當時人為了最大限度的保存群體而制定的社會法則，從《十誡》中我們就可以看出：在1—4條中，上帝宣布自己對人類的絕對統(tǒng)治權(quán)，他不過是個獨裁者而已；而5—10條則是群體生活法則。歸根到底，哪里有什么宿命的罪？全是人的想象罷了。不過，犯了罪必須要受到懲罰，所以建議罪犯應該承受一下自己制定的懲罰，好實現(xiàn)“功德圓滿”。